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Lawmakers are trying to ban TikTok. That won’t be easy -- it’s part of our culture now | CNN

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TikTok may be too entrenched in our culture to be quashed. It was the most-downloaded app in the United States last year, and users say it’s become a critical tool for content creators, entrepreneurs and others who have made the platform an integral part of their lives.

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TikTok is owned by Byte Dance which is a Chinese company. According to Chinese Law, the government of China can access data if they wish to choose from any of their companies. For that reason, the US government is scared that the government could access and track the data of US citizens and their officials.

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For that reason, the "US House of Representatives have banned TikTok from government devices" (Karimi 2023), as well as other states disallowing government officials from having the app. The app is not banned for the wider audience in the US but they are debating whether it should be. Other countries, however, like India have banned TikTok throughout their countries because of tensions and fear of spying from China

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According to Robyn Caplan, "The general consensus from the privacy community is that TikTok collects a lot of data, but it’s not out of step with the amount of data collected by other apps,” (Maheshwari 2023). People against the ban cite this to show that the data recovered by TikTok isn't revolutionary and is shared by all social media companies. If people are okay with Facebook and Instagram tracking their data, then they would have no problem with TikTok since it doesn't affect them.

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Most people who use social media are well aware that a lot of their data is being tracked whether it is Facebook or TikTok, most do not care since the information that the companies collect does not really affect them

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TikTok has gained over a billion globally since its creation back in 2017 and has taken control of the social media market. Certain features on the app have shown it to be more addicting then other apps

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"Every day, users spend an average of an hour and a half on TikTok, which is nearly double the average time spent on Facebook or Instagram." (Karimi 2023). The platform TikTok is designed in a way to addict the user by having short videos.

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A large part of Tiktok's audience are children and adolescents so it is worrying for lawmakers and parents that their children are spending a lot of time on this app

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Although TikTok has guidelines, a lot of content still bypasses it and spreads misinformation about controversial topics to the public.

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Like other social media apps, the purpose of TikTok is to help users express themselves and get a following by showing their passions and talents to the whole world, and a lot of people do not want to lose that ability.

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Unlike other apps, the amount of content that can expressed on TikTok is nearly endless. You can make videos on any of your passions, you can educate people on certain topics, you can promote businesses, or you could just entertain anyone with short 30 seconds videos.

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A reason why there is a backlash from banning TikTok is that a lot of people use it to promote their businesses or themselves, which gives them money. Without TikTok, they'd have to rely on their other socials which aren't as possible and would lose a lot of money.

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From my perspective, which might be biased since I use TikTok, I don't think it should be banned because there is not certain evidence that China has asked ByteDance to transfer data, and even if they did, there is no danger for me to have my data stolen. If you want to apply all the criticisms to TikTiok then you should be fair and do the same to other social media apps. I think if the government wants to ban it for their workers then its fine, but for the consumers who benefit a lot from it, they should leave it available.

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Karimi, Faith. “Lawmakers Are Trying to Ban Tiktok. That Won’t Be Easy -- It’s Part of Our Culture Now.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 Jan. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/01/07/us/tiktok-ban-culture-cec/index.html.